Page:Dick Sands the Boy Captain.djvu/409

 A BOWL OF PUNCH. 58t fled în alarm^ and Coïmbra, awakened to the conviction of the inflammability of his own condition, had rapidly decamped. To say the truth, ît was impossible to do anything ; water would haveproved unavailingto quench the pale blue flamc that hovered over the prostrate forms, every tissue of which was so thoroughly împregnated with spirit, that combustion, though outwardly extinguished, would continue its work internally. In a few minutes lifc was extinct, but the bodies continued long aftervards to burn ; until, upon the spot where they had fallen, a few light ashes, some fragments of the spinal cblumn, somefingers and some tocs, covered with' ai thin layer of stinking. soot, were ail that remained of the • King of Kazonndé and his ill fated ministcr.